mous
brother. While this arrangement greatly increased Irving's
satisfaction in life, it made heavy demands upon his purse. One cannot
be a country gentleman for nothing. The cottage had to be enlarged
repeatedly, the grounds cared for; and the mere running expenses were
a considerable matter for a man without dependable income. Irving had
by this time received a great deal of money for his books, but an
unfortunate "knack of hoping" had locked up most of it in unprofitable
land speculations.

In 1835 the three volumes of the "Crayon Miscellanies," were
published. The "Tour on the Prairies" was especially palatable to
Americans. Edward Everett said of it, in the highly colored style of
the period: "We are proud of Mr. Irving's sketches of English life,
proud of the gorgeous canvas upon which he has gathered in so much of
the glowing imagery of Moorish times. We behold with delight his easy
and triumphant march over these beaten fields; but we glow with
rapture as we see him coming back, laden with the poetical treasures
of the primitive wilderness, rich with spoil from the uninhabited
desert."

The second volume, containing "Abbotsford" and "Newstead Abbey,"
naturally gained special praise in England; the third, "Legends of the
Conquest of Spain," had comparatively little success.

Of "Astoria" (1836) it is hard to know what to say; on the whole, it
seems the most doubtful of his works in motive and quality. John Jacob
Astor, now an old man, was anxious to perpetuate the fame of his
commercial exploits, and was lucky enough to subsidize for this
purpose the most prominent American writer of the day. The adventures
of the various expeditions sent out to found an American trading
company on the Pacific coast are interesting; but one puts down
Irving's account of them with the feeling that it reflects rather more
credit on Mr. Astor than on the writer. The truth is, Irving, like
many less successful literary men, was constantly in need of money;
and he had begun to be in some difficulty for subjects upon which to
exercise his craft. The "Adventures of Captain Bonneville" (1837) was
also a piece of skillful book-making rather than an original creative
work; and after that nearly two years passed without his writing
anything.

At last, toward the close of 1838, he hit upon a subject which
attracted him greatly--a "History of the Conquest of Mexico." He began
at once upon preliminary studies, and had made considerable p